Light At The End | Book 1 | Surviving The Apocalypse

by Benson, Tom

  “When we get back, if anybody asks, we found him, and it looks like he tripped and fractured his skull on the metal rail.”

  “His body wasn’t near the rail—” Alan wiped his mouth.

  “Alan, please, trust me on this—he tripped and fractured his skull on the metal rail. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Alan murmured. All bravado had left the man who earlier was eager to tackle anybody for any reason.

  Bill said, “Calvin, Paul—have you got the story straight?”

  “Fell and fractured his skull,” Calvin said.

  “I’ve got it,” Paul said. “What do you think really—”

  “Let’s not go there, but I need you guys to trust me. We need time to consider what to do about this. Please, leave it with me for now.”

  “What about burying him?” Alan’s tone betrayed how badly shaken the incident had left him.

  “Alan,” Bill said. “Please try to let it go, mate. In a couple of hours, there won’t be anything to bury. Besides, all we could do is pile rocks on top of him.” He looked at the three subdued men. “If somebody will come back with me later when that scene has calmed down, I’ll bury his remains as best as I can.”

  “I’ll come back with you,” Paul said, “even if it’s just to hold the flashlight for you?”

  “Thanks, mate, but that’s all I’d ask you to do.” He paused. “An emergency burial is not a task you’d want to tackle, or a scene you’d want in your memory.”

  “It’s okay, I understand, but I want to help. You shouldn’t be left with all the responsibility.”

  The four men trudged back to the coach, each in a mixed-up world of his own. Alan and Calvin were traumatised because they’d set eyes on a mass of voracious rodents feasting. It was a scene they’d never forget. Paul didn’t see it, but had heard it, which left him with a fair idea of what was there.

  Bill was mystified, but he was also concerned. Apart from the horrific scene with the corpse, he had found two items which caused him to sense that he’d have to tread carefully with every passenger on the coach. There was a killer to find among them.

  Dawn was in her usual swivel seat up front, and Steph was using the driver’s seat which was turned to face the guide. The two front seats on either side of the aisle were unoccupied.

  “How are we doing with our … register?” Bill sat on a wooden case of bottled water. He was trying to sound upbeat, as he had been since the rude awakening—landing in a disused railway tunnel in a luxury tourist coach.

  “We’ve only got a few to go now, leader,” Steph said and smiled. “Have you got something else lined up when we have the information?”

  “I have, but there’s a sequence we’ll need to get right, or my plan will go tits-up—sorry, I mean pear-shaped.”

  Steph smiled again, which brightened her handsome face. She winked. “Don’t worry, we’re big girls.”

  Bill resisted the temptation to take the conversation further. As an ex-soldier, his brain already had the next four bawdy responses lined up. Instead of speaking, he glanced at the concentration on Dawn’s face as she worked with her register. Bill looked along the aisle and could see Paul sitting among the passengers. It was fortunate that some of the seats had not been taken on the short tour.

  “Okay, and these are the last two,” Dawn said, showing her electronic tablet to Steph.

  The author wrote the information rapidly onto her pad and stopped. “Okay, the job is done. We don’t have to rely on the malfunctioning tablet now, and we’ve registered the name, age, and occupation of everybody onboard—except Ken. We think he was a salesman.”

  “What do you mean, you think he was a salesman?”

  “That’s what the young woman said—the one he’d been sitting beside most recently.”

  “What’s her name?”

  “Anne Brown,” Steph whispered and traced a finger down her list. “A florist.”

  Bill leant forward and whispered, “Did you two girls wander off with the others when they went to stretch their legs?”

  “No,” Dawn said. “Steph stayed with me beside the coach, helping me to rearrange and count the bottled water and the boxes of snack bars and things. That’s why we have one case of water inside now.”

  Steph nodded downwards and tapped on the wooden box Bill was perched on. “What’s on your mind, Bill?” The woman’s cheerful expression was replaced with a furrowed brow and squinting eyes.

  “Both of you, please, go along with me on this for a minute. I need to get my head around the circumstances of Ken’s disappearance.”

  The two women nodded and gazed at the man for whom no problem seemed insurmountable.

  “Let me get this straight.” Bill paused. “When the passengers were told they could stretch their legs and they all got off, are you sure everybody left the coach?”

  “Absolutely everybody, except us two,” Dawn said with confidence.

  “Nobody could have maybe been in the toilet cubicle at the back?”

  “No.”

  “Why so certain?”

  “A few minutes after everybody else left the coach, I stopped unloading boxes of snack supplies to go and use the toilet. When I returned two minutes later, Steph had stacked the water crates. She came inside to use the toilet and then we were together all the time until everybody came back.”

  “Good—you two have just given me hope for building a plan of action.”

  The two women exchanged a look of bewilderment and then turned to look at Bill.

  “I’m sorry girls, I can’t afford to write anything down, so I’m running scenarios and strategies around in my head.” He paused and sipped water from the bottle beside him. Bill looked from the front cabin section of the coach back along the aisle. Alan, Paul, Calvin and Chloe were all in conversation with others—not each other, which was good. Bill was pretty confident of those four people, and they seemed to have endeared themselves to the others.

  Dawn said, “Is there anything we could do to help, apart from producing this information?”

  “How many more of those wooden boxes do you have in the luggage compartment?”

  “Five—we carry quite a lot of water at this time of year.”

  “For that, we should all be eternally grateful.” Bill nodded. “Paul told me about it earlier. If the compartment is unlocked I’ll borrow a couple of boxes to use as seats. I’d like the sidelights switched on so that I can sit out at the front of the coach to interview our passengers.”

  “Do you intend to interview everybody?” Steph said.

  “Yes, but don’t worry, it will be painless.” He reached out. “May I?”

  “Of course.” Steph handed over her handwritten list. “I take it the interview sessions will be out front so that there is a level of confidentiality?”

  “Yes, because we have to ensure we don’t have any more accidents. The easiest way is to ask folk not to wander off or to discuss things and blur the possible issues.”

  Dawn said, “Do you have experience in this sort of thing, Bill?”

  “Only in military scenarios, but I’ve read lots of good books—talking of which, what’s your speciality, Steph?”

  “Thrillers, but I’ve written other genres too.”

  “How many thrillers have you penned?”

  “I’ve written ten, and though I don’t want to sound big-headed, they’re pretty successful.”

  Bill nodded. “I think I’ve just discovered the ideal person to interview first.”

  Steph smiled. “Do you intend to make an announcement that you’re speaking to everybody?”

  “What would your opinion be?”

  “If I was trying to retain a sense of calm, I think stealth would be the way forward.”

  “Okay, go on.”

  “I’m pleased that we’re dealing with an accident and not something more sinister, but we do have to get the questions right to build up a picture.”

  “I follow that, and it’s sound reasoning.”
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  “Well, how about we go outside? You and I can use my interview to help format an appropriate approach for your questions?” She paused. “That way, we don’t have to whisper, and nobody has to know what we’re discussing. We tell everybody the interviews are related to our general situation.”

  “You’ve just given me an idea, and if it works, our chances of success will be improved.”

  “What now, leader?” Steph smiled.

  Bill gave a weak smile. “Let’s go outside and grab a couple of those wooden cases to sit on.” He half-turned. “Dawn do you know how to switch on the sidelights?”

  “As I said earlier, I know the coach from top to bottom—I just don’t drive it. You two go on, and I’ll get to it. I take it nobody is to know what you’re doing?”

  “If anybody asks, just say I’m trying to work out a way to keep everybody safe—which is actually the truth.”

  “I like that,” Steph said. “Maybe you’ve got more good ideas than you give yourself credit for.”

  Bill and Steph stepped down and off the coach when Dawn operated the door. Five minutes later, the two interviewers were perched on boxes opposite each other over the rails in front of the coach.

  Steph said, “Okay, now that we’re out here and Dawn isn’t privy to what we discuss, what’s really on your mind? I’ve been involved in accident investigation, and you are way beyond that level of concern.”

  “If you didn’t mind, Steph, I’d like you to sit in on all the interviews. Ostensibly, it’s to take notes. With your background in writing thrillers, I’m pretty sure you’d have a shrewd mind when it came to spotting something out of the ordinary.”

  “I’m flattered at the confidence you’re showing in me, but you still haven’t levelled with me.”

  “I’m going to tell you something, and you have to keep a straight face, just in case somebody looks down at us from the front of the coach.”

  “I don’t like the sound of this, but go on.”

  “Ken didn’t have an accident, Steph.”

  “Oh my god.”

  “I’d stake my life on it—whatever time I’ve got left.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “When I reached the blocked tunnel entrance with Paul, the other two guys who were searching were unaware of us and still using the lights on their mobile phones. We were a distance away and approaching when Alan and Calvin discovered Ken. Unless they’re both professional actors, their reaction to the scene told me all I had to know about them. Those two men were traumatised.”

  “I know Paul was with you, but how did he react when he saw the body?”

  “I didn’t let him see it—I told him to support the others.”

  “I’ve seen some pretty gruesome things in my life—I used to be a paramedic. How bad was it?”

  “The body was nowhere near the rails, so he didn’t fall and bang his head, but it was severely damaged.” Bill saw no point in mentioning the feeding frenzy he and the others had witnessed. “While the others were being sick, I was alone at the scene for a few minutes, and I found two important items. One was a large rock a few feet away, which had a dark red stain, and was wet.”

  “What was the other item?”

  Bill reached into a pocket and produced a small black wallet, showing it to Steph, but shielding it with his body so that nobody on the coach would see what it was. “The warrant card of Detective Sergeant Ken Wallace.”

  5 - Questions and Answers

  Steph stepped up into the entrance of the coach. “Dawn, we’re ready if you’d like to be next for a chat with Bill.”

  “I’ll be right there.” Dawn lifted her bottled water, took a sip and went out to the front of the coach. She sat on another of the wooden boxes which Bill had lifted from the luggage compartment.

  Bill said, “Steph is going to stay out here with me, Dawn. Just as I said inside earlier, I’m going to speak to everybody. We have to piece together how and why a member of our group could end up so far away and have a fatal accident.”

  “Personally, I can’t understand why he would have wandered so far. Even with a mobile phone light, he’d have had problems seeing where he was.”

  “We’ve discussed the situation and we’d like to pair everybody up, so each person has a buddy—wherever they go, the buddy goes. Nobody will get lost, and if there is an accident, we’ll find out quickly.”

  “Right.”

  “Obviously, we know that you were beside the coach earlier when the others walked into the darkness so there’s nothing you can tell us about the incident.” Bill paused. “Something occurred to us about the passenger list, and you’d be the person to help us clear it up.”

  “Yes, of course, what is it?”

  “You said earlier that when you and Paul set out on your three-day tours like this one, you have scheduled passengers, but you also cater to stray tourists along the way?”

  “Yes, the coach can carry up to forty passengers apart from the driver and guide, so the company normally ensures a minimum of twelve from setting out. Depending on the route and sights, we can pick up and drop off because there are usually two other coaches scheduled. We all use the same circuitous route, perhaps with two or three stops on each day.”

  “Okay, so with that in mind,” Bill said. “Today was a trip to watch ospreys at the Bird of Prey viewing site, and then on to visit a selection of sights around a particular mountain area?”

  “That’s right, yes.”

  “Did you pick up anybody after setting off with your initial group?”

  “Now that you mention it—we did. If I can have two minutes, I’ll nip in and grab my tablet. The cell life has been affected by some kind of electrical issue, but I’ll have noted the passengers we picked up.” Dawn was in and out of the coach in less than one minute. “Here we are. At the Bird of Prey viewing site, we picked up Ken Wallace, Patsy Mayne, Noreen Thorpe, Victoria Boyd, Fiona Keegan and Jay-Dee Singhmar.”

  “Okay, I’ve ticked all of them, thanks, Dawn.” Bill leant forward. “We’re hoping to avoid any casual discussion so could you keep it under your hat that we asked about the passenger list?”

  “Yes, of course. Is there anything else you need to know?”

  “Not for now,” Bill said. “You’ve helped a lot though—thank you.”

  Dawn went back inside, and Bill turned to his companion. “What have we got, Steph?”

  “I know we haven’t done much interviewing yet, but I think we can safely say we have at least two or three people who are not who or what they say they are.”

  “Go on.”

  “The only person called Ken is the dead man, and according to Dawn’s list, he was a salesman.”

  “Which we know he wasn’t, unless he was, and he wasn’t a police officer.”

  “I’m inclined to believe that the identity card you found is genuine, but it does lead us into another quandary.”

  Bill nodded.

  Steph said, “If you didn’t go through his clothing, how far away from his body was the warrant card?”

  “Easily a few paces—say four or five metres, and I only saw it because it was open. The shiny surface caught my eye with the flashlight.” Bill studied the author. “What are you thinking?”

  “I think that if you were to lift that small wallet from your pocket and drop it by accident, it wouldn’t fall open, because it’s folded into two neat sections.” She glanced at the coach and held out her hand.

  Bill pulled the folded wallet from his pocket and handed it over. He glanced at the coach to ensure nobody was watching. “Go on, Steph.”

  She held the small wallet open and dropped it. When she picked it up by one corner, it still didn’t fall all the way open. “I think he knelt down or paused for some reason and placed this open on the ground because he had last-minute concerns about his safety.”

  “You mean he knew he might have been taking a risk. If things went wrong, he didn’t want the other person to find the identity docu
ment on his body and make it disappear?”

  Steph nodded and handed the wallet back to Bill. “He either knew, or thought he knew the murderer, but why did he end up so far away and alone with them?”

  “It is a mystery, and if we ask the right questions, we’ll solve it—I’m sure.” Bill looked at the list of names on Steph’s pad. “How about interviewing those we don’t have any suspicions about and when asked we just say our list was random. It won’t take long before we’re conducting the interviews of the passengers picked up while en route?”

  “Interviewing everybody will camouflage what we’re doing. Our killer is among them and will be aware of how hard it will be to figure out the details of Ken’s death. Who do we want first?”

  “Let’s get Alan out here.”

  “I’ll ask Dawn to give him a shout.” Steph went to the doorway, spoke to Dawn and returned to her strange seat. “Bill, how many people know that what’s happened wasn’t an accident?”

  “Alan, Calvin, Paul, you, me and the killer.”

  “Should we tell anybody else?”

  “I’ve been pondering that, Steph, and I thought we should leave it until we’ve done all the questioning. We’ll see how things pan out with our chats. Afterwards, I’ll speak individually to our small group who are in the know. We have to keep it to ourselves and observe people.”

  “Again, a good idea, so unless we have a problem, that’s how we’ll go.”

  “Hi guys,” Alan said as he approached. “What can I do for you?”

  “Sit yourself down, Alan,” Bill said. “I know this is all very hush-hush and formal looking, but we didn’t want to have an open discussion. What we’re doing is asking everybody if they wandered away from the coach earlier. We’d like to know who went out and who they were talking to. We’re trying to find who, if anybody, was near Ken before his accident.”

  Alan said he’d been standing within sight of the coach lights and talking to Calvin.

  Bill mentioned the buddy-system idea and asked if Alan had any other suggestions. As they would do with everybody, the interviewing pair asked that Alan didn’t pass on anything that had been said. He was at liberty to say that the whole interview idea was in the name of personal safety for everybody.